This invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for assembling plural kinds of exterior parts to a motorcar body which form an exterior shape of the motorcar (such as a bonnet, front fenders, doors, or the like).
Conventional assembling robots for automatically assembling doors and a bonnet are disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 240574/1985 and Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 99272/1987. These assembling robots are provided with position sensors for detecting parts assembling locations such as door openings and engine compartment openings in the motorcar body. The robots are constituted such that parts can be automatically assembled to their assembling locations after the parts are aligned. These assembling robots, however, have the following disadvantages. Namely, the assembling accuracy of the motorcar body will sometimes give rise to an error to some degree, although the error is within a tolerable range. For instance, right and left side-panels will sometimes be relatively offset in position in the longitudinal direction depending on the error in the assembling accuracy. In the case of the above-described instance, since right and left doors are assembled to respective door openings of right and left side-panels after respective alignment thereof, right and left front end positions of front fenders will no longer be in alignment with each other if the right and left front fenders are assembled with a predetermined clearance between each door. As a result, there will be a step (or a difference) between the front end of the bonnet and the fenders and, consequently, the external line from the head towards the side of the motorcar does not form a successful connection.